This proposal seeks partial support for an international symposium on "New Directions in Biology and Disease of Skeletal Muscle," to be held April 27 to April 30, 2008 at the New Orleans Wyndham Hotel in New Orleans, LA. This is the third meeting held in this series. Muscle degenerative diseases including the muscular dystrophies and myopathies arise from individual gene defects in a large number of distinct genes. In many cases, these genes can be clustered into functional groups that highlight critical pathways for normal and abnormal function of muscle. The first meeting in this "New Directions" series was attended by clinicians and scientists and covered pathogenesis and treatment-oriented research. A number of collaborations developed from this meeting, and importantly, this meeting established groundwork that has directed clinical trial design. The second "New Directions" meeting was held in 2006 in Dallas, TX. This meeting was well attended and emphasized key findings that could be translated into clinical therapeutics as well as preclinical testing. We have now planned the third installment of the "New Directions" meeting for New Orleans in 2008. This meeting is evolving from the others in that data from ongoing clinical trials will be presented. Additionally, we will focus on target identification for other forms of muscle disease that may not be treated with current approaches. Topics to be discussed include nuclear membrane biology, muscle systems biology, models and therapy, RNA repeats and contractions in muscle disease, matrix and stem cells and the dystrophin complex. The meeting will be held, as the others, over three days with approximately 42 presentations. Two poster sessions will be included. Approximately 25% of the speakers will be named based on submitted abstracts to allow the inclusion of the most timely and cutting edge findings relevant to the field of the muscle degenerative diseases. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This proposal seeks partial support for an international symposium on "New Directions in Biology and Disease of Skeletal Muscle," to be held April 27 to April 30, 2008 at the New Orleans Wyndham Hotel in New Orleans, LA. This meeting is highly unique in its focus on muscle diseases and therapy. The meeting brings together researchers and clinicians to identify new targets for therapy to treat the muscle degenerative diseases including the muscular dystrophies and myopathies. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]